


Family Fluff

by tokkitoria



Category: DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Family, Fluff, M/M, family au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 17:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5594788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokkitoria/pseuds/tokkitoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blurbly fluffs of everyday Kouao life with an adopted daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Fluff

**Author's Note:**

> Here are a compilation of little everyday blurbs of life between Kouao and their small daughter. I've given her the name Hanako (flower child) but feel free to give her a new name if you so choose. I hope you enjoy ^^
> 
> This was a secret santa gift for firofee on Tumblr for the DMMD secret santa.

~A Short Prologue~

 

Aoba was exhausted. With the Christmas season coming around, it seemed like even the junk shop was busy with orders. That meant a lot of deliveries for him, and although he didn't mind doing deliveries there were just so many that his legs ached by the end of the day. Haga-san had insisted that he didn't have to deliver them all, but Aoba said he'd do it anyway. He was just as stubborn and wasn't going to give up easily.

 

He was allowed to go home on the way back from his last delivery of the day. It was pretty close to the north old residential district, which was a bit of an abnormality for him. Maybe he'd see Clear while he was there? A part of him didn't really want to, he was too tired for that. What he did find would end up being a lot more tiresome than he imagined.

 

It started when he almost stepped on what looked like a doll house made of twigs. Who could have made this? He looked left and right but didn't see anyone around. It wasn't until he looked down again that he noticed who must have made it. A little girl who couldn't have been more than two years old had come back to her twig house. She was small with matted brown hair and dirt all over her. The clothes she wore had holes and were tattered, and she wore no shoes. Aoba thought kids like that only existed in the movies. He'd never seen an orphan like that in real life.

 

Slowly, he got down to her level and said 'Hello' to her. She immediately looked away from him, and Aoba wasn't sure if she was shy or scared, maybe even both. He stayed there for a moment, watching her slowly get back into playing. She was absolutely filthy, but it wasn't so much smell as it was dirt.

 

“Do you live anywhere?” he asked her after a moment. She looked up at him and shook her head slowly before looking back down. Could she even speak? He tried asking her another question, “Where are your parents?” She shook her head again, but did that mean she didn't know or she didn't have any? “Do you have a name?” was his last inquiry.

 

She looked up at him and stuttered, “H..H..Hana..ko..”

 

“Hanako? That's your name? It's a very pretty name,” he smiled warmly at her, and he swore under her dirty face she might have blushed.

 

“Mmm...” she muttered and went back to what she was doing.

 

“You don't have a home or parents, do you?” he finally asked her, and she muttered an affirmative. Aoba thought for a long time. He knew he shouldn't do it, and he knew it was bad, but he was always a bit impulsive. Granny was constantly scolding him for doing without fully thinking it through, but it seemed to hit him on a personal level. Yes, his situation was vastly different than that of other orphaned children, but he couldn't help it. It was like someone was telling him that now was the time to pay it foreword.

 

It took a lot of convincing and coaxing, but she must have figured there was nothing to lose because eventually she allowed Aoba to bring her along. Aoba didn't turn Ren on from his bag, because he knew that if he did there would be a lot of protesting all the way home. Ren was the voice of reason, and he didn't want to hear him right now. When it came to matters of the heart, sometimes logic wasn't a top priority.

 

At the time he practically lived at Koujaku's house. After the confession in his bedroom, he spent most of his time there. He was pretty much moved in, honestly. However, he went to his own house this time instead. He knew he'd get scolded, but he needed some advice that could only come from someone more experienced than himself.

 

Of course, the first words out of her mouth were, “Why do you have a child?!” Aoba stuttered to explain the situation before she had an aneurism. Surprisingly she listened to his story, but didn't seem very impressed. Then again, she never seemed impressed.

 

“Please...you know we can't take her to the police, what good would they do?” Aoba tried to reason with her.

 

Granny huffed, “Do you even know how to raise a child? Or how much it costs?”

 

“I have a pretty good idea...” Aoba muttered like a scolded child himself, “I just don't know why but...I feel like this is the way things are supposed to be. Almost as if I came across her for a reason. I never have to go out that far for deliveries, why was it I met her today?”

 

“You always did think with your heart instead of your brain,” Granny sighed, “Well, we can't just leave her this way. Let me give her a bath while you go out and see if it's possible to afford everything you'll need. Meanwhile, leave Ren with me. I want him to run her face through the missing children's database before we get too far into anything.”

 

Aoba nodded quickly and did as he was told. He used his coil to keep track of the costs he'd found and it was indeed a lot more than he expected. However, with some planning he thought he could swing it. The only other issue was that he hadn't actually talked to Koujaku about it. They were together now, so it wasn't like when he was alone. Any big decisions he made fell back on the both of them.

 

He was easily able to find him in the area Benishigure liked to hang out the most. Everyone there seemed in good spirits, so maybe he had a good chance of convincing Koujaku to take his side. Walking over to them, he waved in a friendly manner and tugged on Koujaku's arm, “Can I talk to you for a second?”

 

“Sure, you can talk to me any time~” he seemed pleased by Aoba's visit.

 

“No I mean, in private,” he elaborated, which was followed by a chorus of 'ooooooou!' from the others as if they were schoolchildren. Could they be drunk already? Who knows.

 

“Okay, what did you need to talk to me about? Are you alright?” Koujaku asked him once they were alone.

 

“Everything's fine, there's just something I needed to talk to you about,” Aoba started, but his coil went off before he could continue, “Hello?”

 

“Aoba, I searched through the database and found no matches on the girl. It seems she really must be orphaned,” Ren was on the other end. Did he think someone would lie about having no parents?!

 

“Ah, thanks a lot Ren. I'll be back soon,” he hung up quickly before he got a lecture. He already had one today, he didn't need another.

 

“What is he talking about?” Koujaku asked him, and Aoba had to explain himself for the second time.

 

“I know it's a lot all of a sudden but can you at least give it a chance? For me?” Aoba tried pulling his most pathetic puppy face. Koujaku had trouble saying 'no' to Aoba normally, so he knew exactly how to pull on him to get what he wanted. He didn't like to do it, but he knew how.

 

“I don't know about this...” Koujaku protested, but he didn't protest very hard. He couldn't object to at least trying, but he wasn't going to guarantee anything.

 

Once they returned to the house, they found Hanako at the kitchen table having a snack. Granny had fished out a pair of Aoba's old pyjamas, which were big but enough for her to be clothed. She seemed to be happily eating what she had been giving with no reservations whatsoever. Hanako really must have been hungry. Once she saw Aoba come back, she got off her chair and went over to hold on to his leg. Was she that attached to him already?

 

Koujaku seemed a little awkward around her. When she looked over at him, Koujaku froze right up. She didn't even do anything but it seemed to make him tense. Aoba wondered why, but figured he could ask that later. Instead they all went into the living room and sat on the couch. Hanako sat in Aoba's lap and Koujaku sat beside them.

 

“This is Koujaku, can you tell him your name?” Aoba asked her softly. Koujaku had to admit, watching Aoba be parental was kind of adorable. He didn't expect that from him at all.

 

“H...Hana..ko..” she murmered quietly.

 

“Well...it's nice to meet you, Hanako..” Koujaku replied. He was so good with ladies, why was he so awkward around a little girl?!

 

She stared at him for a long time before getting off of Aoba's lap and sitting in Koujaku's instead. He must have looked comfortable or something, because she leaned against him and eventually fell asleep that way. If Koujaku's heart could melt, it would have, because he didn't really ever see himself as the parenting type. To be honest, he always felt like he didn't deserve it after what happened in his own childhood.

 

“See? She likes you, there was nothing to worry about,” Aoba commented quietly so he didn't wake her.

 

“Seems like it..” Koujaku muttered and looked down at her. She was completely out and seemed to be just fine sleeping where she was.

 

“Hey Koujaku?”

 

“Hmn?”

 

“Merry Christmas.”

 

~Name~

 

Hanako had been living with them for about a month, and it seemed like everyone had fallen into a normal routine. If Aoba worked, Koujaku stayed home. If Aoba didn't work, Koujaku usually set up shop. If for whatever reason both of them were busy, Granny was more than happy to help even though she'd never admit she enjoyed it.

 

She'd gotten to know a lot about her surroundings and things in her everyday life – since Aoba pretty much lived with Koujaku that was the house she knew the best. She liked watching the cherry blossoms fall from the trees, rolling around on their bed, and chasing Ren around the house. 

 

The only worrisome thing was that she didn't seem to talk a lot for her age. She said one or two words at a time, but no full sentences. Aoba had talked to Granny about his concerns, but she said that maybe Hanako was still a little shy but it could also be because she didn't have the proper care until now and thus no environment to learn.

 

With that in mind, both new parents were determined to get her on the right track. They made sure to identify objects she was interested in, talk to her in full sentences so she knew the structure, and encourage her when she tried even though she wasn't so good at it. The current goal was to get her to call them by name – any name really. They hadn't decided who would be what, so whether she called them by their actual name or by a parental name didn't really matter much to them. As long as she started somewhere, the result was good.

 

“Do you want some apple for a snack?” Aoba asked her one day. She nodded and held out her hands to him. Usually her yes was an 'mmmmm~' with a nod, but she was getting good at 'yes please'.

 

“Please!” she asked when Aoba waited for a verbal answer.

 

“Here you go,” Aoba gave her the bowl of sliced apples. He wasn't great at it, but Hanako couldn't care less. She shoved them all in her mouth either way.

 

“Aoba, you have a message coming in from Koujaku,” Ren trotted his way into the room. Sometimes Aoba got so caught up in daddy duty that he didn't notice when his coil want off.

 

“Ah! Thank you, Ren,” Aoba answered the call, “Hello?”

 

“Hey you~ I was just wondering how everything is going,” Koujaku answered on the other end.

 

“Everything is going well. Hanako is having a snack so she's pretty quiet right now,” Aoba replied. The two of them made small talk for a bit until another voice joined them.

 

“Ren!”

Aoba stopped talking as Koujaku continued, and he had to shush him to make sure he heard properly, “Hanako, what did you just say?”

 

“Ren! Renrenrenrenrenrenrenrenren!” she kept saying over and over until she got out of breath. She went over and embraced Ren in a big hug, rubbing her cheek on his fur.

 

“Aoba, how do I respond to this situation?” Ren replied in his normal calm tone, but there seemed to be a hint of panic that was never there before.

 

“Renrenrenrenren!” she started up again.

 

“Well then....I can't believe it..” Aoba muttered.

 

“Is that Hanako?” Koujaku spoke on the other end again.

 

“Yup...and the first person she calls to is....Ren,” Aoba groaned. He should have seen it coming, Hanako absolutely adored Ren. Ren didn't usually mind her either, he was just a bit shocked when she'd embrace him so tightly and affectionately.

 

“I'll let you go deal with that then...” Koujaku hung up before Aoba could respond. Koujaku was not getting in the middle of that.

 

“I see you found Ren, huh?” Aoba got down to her level.

 

“Renrenrenrenrenrenren!” she snuggled him some more.

 

“Aoba...please help,” Ren sounded like he was in dire distress.

 

“Owww...” 

 

“Ow? Does something hurt?” Aoba asked. He didn't see anything that could be causing her any pain.

 

“Owwww......ba,” she tried again.

 

“Oww....ba...Aoba? Are you trying to say Aoba, Hanako?” he was suddenly much more enthusiastic.

 

“Owba. Oww...ba.....bababababababa,” she started babbling on, “Baba!”

 

“What happened to Aoba?” he asked, but he was still happy. He'd take 'Baba' over nothing.

 

“Baba~” he went to embrace Aoba next, leading Ren to let out a sigh of releif.

 

“Alright alright fine, I guess I'm Baba now,” he picked her up, “Make sure you tell that to the hippo when he gets home.”

 

The day went on and eventually Koujaku did return home, and he expected Aoba to be up in arms about Hanako saying 'Ren' first over everyone else. He didn't expect Aoba to be so pleasant, had he missed something in between?

 

“Good evening,” Aoba greeted him when he entered the house.

 

“Hey, what's got you in such a good mood?” Koujaku chuckled.

 

“Hanako, will you say what you learned today?” he looked down at the girl who was playing on the floor between his feet, “Who am I?”

 

“Baba!” she exclaimed with pride.

 

“Really, 'Baba'?” Koujaku crossed his arms, but he was only teasing.

 

“Better than a load of nothing, which is what you are,” Aoba stuck his tongue out.

 

“Hanakoooo~ What about me? Who am I?” he got on her level and pointed to himself.

 

Hanako looked at him for a moment, then up at Aoba, then back to Koujaku. She seemed to be thinking about what she wanted to say. After a few moments, she finally seemed to come up with something.

 

“Hippo!”

 

Aoba, who had been drinking water, nearly spit it all out and it started to dribble down his chin. Beni had been sitting on Koujaku's shoulder, but nearly fell off in hysterical laughter. Koujaku was so shocked he could hardly speak at first.

 

“Hippo! Hip-po!” she sang.

 

“No! Not Hippo! Not Hippo!!” Koujaku whined, “Help me out here, Aoba!”

 

“Sorry Hippo, Baba's busy,” he shrugged and sauntered off into the kitchen. 

 

Eventually she did stop calling him Hippo, but Koujaku knew he would never ever live that one down.

 

 

~Tattoos~

 

Koujaku tried really hard to hide his tattoos from Hanako. He was self conscious about them as it was, but he didn't want to scare her or have her think any differently of him. Aoba tried to reassure him that Hanako wouldn't think anything of it, but in the back of his mind Koujaku didn't want her to know either way. It was a part of himself that made him sick, and that wasn't something he could easily share with others. He still hated it when Aoba saw, let alone anyone else. Every time he looked in the mirror it was a constant reminder of a past he longed to run from, but never could.

 

After a long day of work and play, everyone had gone to bed early. Unfortunately children didn't understand the concept of an early bedtime. Hanako rolled around and around and around until she decided that enough was enough. She got up and went to find something to do, preferably a Ren to snuggle. Eventually she found herself in the bedroom of her parents and decided they were the ones she wanted to bother. Shuffling over to the bed, she stared over Aoba first. Then she went around the other side and stared at Koujaku. He was sleeping on his stomach, and it was the first time she'd ever seen the brightly coloured pink peonies. It was absolutely fascinating: How did they get there? Why did he have them? But most of all, she seemed to just be awed by how pretty they were. At least, that's how she felt about it.

 

As a child, her curiosity eventually got the better of her. It was nice to look at it and all, but she had to touch it. The concept was simply too much for her curious mind. She crawled up on the bed carefully, knowing full well both of them were asleep. Kids were also pretty good at knowing what they are and are not supposed to do, but decide to do it anyway. In the case she knew it was a bad idea, but she wanted to do it so badly that she decided to just be sneaky about it. Or so she thought. Sitting on top of him wasn't exactly the most discreet way to go about it, but she couldn't reach from where she was before.

 

By this point Koujaku had woken up, but it was just then that he woke up enough to realize something was off. He got up to look over his shoulder, which sent Hanako falling backward onto the bed. She fell back with an 'oof' but didn't seem to be harmed in any way, just surprised from falling over.

 

“What are you doing out of bed?” Koujaku asked in a voice that was still half asleep.

 

“Uhhhh....” she tried to figure out an excuse, but none seemed to come to her so instead she blurted out, “Pretty!”

 

“Pretty what?” he sat up all the way and scratched his head.

 

Hanako got back up and went around the bed so she was behind him, “Pretty flowers!”

 

“H..Hey...come back here..” Koujaku looked over his shoulder, “Don't..”

 

“Humm...” she thought to herself as she touched it, thinking it was going to come off, but it never did.

 

“Alright come back here, you're going back to bed,” he turned around and scooped her up, getting up from the bed.

 

“Why?” Hanako asked the entire way back to her bed.

 

“Why what?” Koujaku plopped her down on her bed and tucked her in.

 

“Why the pretty flowers?” she asked.

 

“That's something you won't understand until you're a little older,” he sounded a bit grim in his answer. Honestly, he hoped he'd never have to answer her at all.

 

“Pretty..” she yawned to herself.

 

“Alright....sure..” Koujaku felt a bit conflicted. On one hand he still hated it, but on the other his heart absolutely melted by Hanako's words. Who knew saying something so simple would go so far? To make sure she didn't get up again, he laid down with her in the bed. They had made a rule of typically not sleeping in the bed with her, but there could be exceptions right?

 

When Aoba awoke in the morning, he was confused to find his bed empty. He searched around the house sleepily until he finally found the people he was missing. Koujaku had managed to fit himself in Hanako's bed in a way Aoba thought had to be uncomfortable, but he seemed alright. That was probably because Hanako was fast asleep in his arms as if nothing had happened that night.

 

It was something neither of them would ever mention to Aoba, but to Koujaku what happened that night meant the world to him.

 

 

~Haircut~

 

“You, my dear, need a haircut.”

 

Aoba had been sitting and watching the small girl play for a while now and had finally come to this conclusion. She looked like some kind of feral child with her hair in all directions. It wasn't that it didn't get brushed, it actually got brushed quite a bit. The problem was that with all that play came a lot of mess, on top of the fact that she kept trying to move it out of her face to no avail. She would sort of push is up with the palm of her hand and it would all slide back down on her face. 

 

If had been up to Koujaku her hair would have been cut ages ago, but Aoba protested that he couldn't cut it without any hair to cut. He ended up dropping the subject, which meant she got her hair brushed often in the meantime, but now it looked like it really did need to be cut. Aoba decided he wasn't going to mention it until after he got home, because if he told him before hand he'd probably leave some poor customer with half a hair cut just to come back and do it.....okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but he'd lose his mind until he came home.

 

He wasn't wrong about the enthusiasm, either. When Koujaku arrived home, Aoba plopped the girl in his lap. It was obvious why because she kept blowing at her hair to get it away. The message didn't even need to be said.

 

“Are you having some trouble there?” Koujaku was trying not to laugh at her.

 

“She needs a haircut before it drives her crazy,” Aoba helped her push it away from her face.

 

“Yes! Finally!” Koujaku exclaimed like he had been waiting ages to do it, when in reality it hadn't actually been that long. It just felt like it because he had wanted to do it so badly. There was just one small thing he hadn't anticipated.

 

Cutting a child's hair wasn't the same as cutting the hair of an adult. Their attention span is limited and they can't sit still for more than two seconds. Sure he was experienced at it, but the people he usually cut hair for sat still. It was not going to be the case, and one misguided snip could lead to an awful haircut.

 

This became evident even just getting her to sit  _period_ . He couldn't hold her and cut her hair at the same time – only one at a time. Whenever he'd let her go, she'd start moving. If he held her, he couldn't cut her hair with one hand. Aoba tried doing it with her in his lap, but there was no angle where Koujaku could see and cut her hair so it was even on all sides.

 

“I don't think I thought this through,” Koujaku sighed after what felt like the hundredth time. 

 

“Neither did I...” Aoba sighed as she watched their daughter, who seemed very content with herself.

 

“I may be able to make a suggestion, but we would need to wait until tomorrow,” Ren, who had been watching from a corner of the room, spoke up for the first time.

 

“You do?” Aoba looked over to the ball of fluff who trotted over to him.

 

“Yes, I have been doing some research while watching and I may have a solution to your problem,” Ren assured him.

 

Whatever idea Ren had would be better than how things were going. If waiting a day meant they wouldn't lose their minds by the end of this, then waiting it was. When the next day came, Aoba had heard out Ren's suggestion and thought he may have indeed been on to something. It involved a trip to the store, but that wasn't a problem. He was the one who worked that day, so Koujaku stayed home.

 

Once he got home he was able to explain what Ren had suggested: Hanako was enthralled with it because it was something new to her. If she got to try it too, she might be less prone to distraction. Obviously she wasn't going to be using real scissors, so he had to get a plastic pair from a kids playset on the way back home.

 

Koujaku sat with Hanako in front of him, then Aoba in front of her like a train. Aoba would let Hanako pretend to cut his hair while Koujaku was able to do hers. He would be able to work fast if she sat still, it was just the sitting still that was the problem. If she was distracted by pretending to cut hair herself, she'd sit long enough for him to cut.

 

In the end the idea seemed to work. Hanako carefully 'cut' Aoba's hair, singing 'snip snip snip' each time. She'd never been the type to pull or tug, so it really didn't bother Aoba at all. Meanwhile, Koujaku was able to actually cut her hair. Occasionally she'd look up to see what he was doing, he'd smile at her and she'd grin back before going back to what she was doing. Her movement's were predictable, which meant there were no accidents.

 

“There, you're all done,” Koujaku gave her hair a last brush once he was done with it.

 

“Done!” Hanako was conveniently finished as well when he was. He found it adorable how she wanted to imitate him.

 

“No more hair in your face, huh?” Aoba turned around to inspect the job.

 

“What, you think I'm some kind of amateur?” Koujaku chuckled back at him.

 

Aoba shrugged, “I always wondered how hippos gave haircuts.”

 

“Oi!”

 

“Aoba...I require some assistance.”

 

The two had been playfully bickering and didn't notice Hanako had wandered off. She had decided her work for the day was not done, and now she needed to give Ren a haircut too. With her strangely strong death grip around the Allmate, she 'snipped' his fur in all places with no rhyme or reason.

 

“Aw come on Ren, she likes you,” Aoba laughed as he watched her. 

 

Ren sighed in defeat, “Small humans are very troublesome.”

 

 

 

~Intimacy~

 

Trying to have sex when there was a child in the house was a challenge. Aoba and Koujaku had been so used to doing whatever they wanted whenever or wherever that it was difficult to get out of that habit. No matter where or when, she always seemed to appear.

 

On one occasion Koujaku wrapped his arms around Aoba from behind in the kitchen, while the other male tried to make food for dinner. Aoba could feel Koujaku's breath on his neck, making him shiver from the pent up frustraition that happened to both of them. As he felt his neck being ravished from behind, Hanako appeared asking for more juice. Mood ruined.

 

On another occasion, the two of them found themselves in the bathroom together. It wasn't their first bathroom romp, but it was the first with Hanako around. Just as they reached the heat of the moment, Hanako pounded on the door with, “Gotta pee, gotta pee!” Mood ruined again.

 

Finally it seemed like everything was going well. Hanako was fast asleep, there didn't seem to be any distractions, and both of them were going crazy from lack of stress relief. It wasn't hard to get into the mood, because as soon as Aoba returned from Hanako's room (they took turns putting her to bed), he was practically thrown onto the bed in a fit of lust by Koujaku. Thankfully they didn't get far, because Hanako had other ideas. 

 

“Need water!” she called from the doorway, scaring them both half to death. Since Koujaku was on top of Aoba, he was the one who went to go tend to her need. If it meant that she was going to leave them alone, then the short wait was worth it in the end. But they were very, very wrong.

 

The second time around seemed to go better. They had gotten all the way to second base, but before anyone could slide into third they were interrupted again. “Cold!” Hanako complained from the doorway. Koujaku hung his head in defeat and this time Aoba volunteered as tribute and went to help her with this one.

 

The third time they got so close to third base that when they were interrupted there was a lot of clothes and bedsheets being thrown around to hide anything conspicuous. At this point they both resigned to the fact that this was just not happening tonight. It was frustrating, but there was no point going on if they were just going to be interrupted each time. 

 

 

“What's the problem, Hanako?” Aoba pulled his pants back up from under the bed sheet.

 

“Scary,” she frowned. The two of them had been so involved in what they were doing that neither of them noticed a thunderstorm seemed to be brewing outside. Midorijima usually had a temperate climate, but every once in a while they'd get a freak weather occurrence like a bad thunderstorm.

 

“Alright alright, come over here,” Koujaku moved so he was sitting beside Aoba and opened his arms to her. She immediately ran over, hopping up on the bed and into his arms. Hanako absolutely hated rain. Neither of them knew why that was, but she absolutely could not stand it. It almost seemed to borderline on a phobia.

 

“Scary..” she whined again as the weather rumbled from outside.

 

“You're okay, nothing will happen here,” Aoba assured her by stroking her head gently. Koujaku moved her so she could sit between the two of them under the sheets. Then she was able to receive cuddles on both sides from them, which seemed to make her extremely content. She wasn't so keen on being smothered in kisses from either side though, but she did start squealing with laughter. It made her forget about the weather outside as she laughed.

 

That seemed to be enough to make her sleepy, because soon after she fell asleep. She probably sensed it from the other two, because after being interrupted so many times the two males were exhausted as well. With Hanako situated in the middle of them, the three fell asleep. They didn't accomplish what they wanted to do, but they wouldn't have traded a tender family moment like that for anything. Not even sex.

 

~Sick~

 

“Achoo!”

 

Hanako had come down with an aweful cold. No one knew where she had caught it from, but that seemed irrelevant. The point was she was sick and it was awful for everyone. She had all the typical symptoms – stuffy nose, cough, sneezing and a small fever, but worst of all she managed to develop an ear infection as a result. This meant she couldn't ever lie down because it hurt her to, but she was constantly worn out from her body fighting off the illness.

 

Someone was always holding her at all times so that she could sleep sitting up – even if it meant carrying her around and letting her head rest on their chest. It was pretty heartbreaking because there was nothing either of them could do about it. All they could do was try and make her feel the best they could.

 

Often times one of them would take the 'day shift' and the other would take the 'night shift'. Hanako's sleep schedule was on and off, so she didn't really seem to sleep steadily through the night. Something would always wake her up – whether it was a cough, a sneeze or the pain from her ear ache. Tonight was Aoba's turn for night duty, since Koujaku took the first night. Even with the medicine to ease the pain, it didn't seem to help that much.

 

That night just seemed awful. After a trip to the doctors and the medication she had to take, Hanako was exhausted but also unable to sleep. Aoba had tried absolutely everything, but she would not stop crying. It would hit him right in the heart when she'd ask him to make it better and there was nothing more he could do for her.

 

“What do I do...what do I do..” Aoba was muttering to himself as he paced around with Hanako against his chest. He tried to think hard for anything that could possibly help. Eventually he tried searching his brain for things Granny used to do for him when he was little. She used to sing to him a lot, but all he'd listened to was Goatbed for so long he wasn't sure if he could come up with anything.

 

With Hanako growing more and more distressed he had to try something. There was no way this could go on. He thought for one more moment before singing whatever came into his head first – all of the children's lullaby's he could recall from childhood. He didn't particularly like the sound of his voice, but it was just the two of them so what did it matter? Besides, maybe his voice still had some kind of influence on others.

 

It took a good half an hour before Hanako settled down enough to sleep. Aoba was able to sit down and maybe get some sleep with her sitting up against him. He could pretty much sleep anywhere, so sleeping sitting up in a chair wasn't that much of a problem. They'd gotten a comfortable armchair for Hanako's room so it was uncomfortable either.

 

“Did you finally get her to sleep?”

 

Koujaku was only whispering, but Aoba would have jumped a mile if not for Hanako in his lap. There were a lot of questions going through his head, but the one he went with was, “How long have you been standing there?”

 

“Five minutes, tops,” Koujaku entered the room and went over to them quietly.

 

“So you heard that, huh?” Aoba muttered, looking away to avoid showing his embarrassment.

 

“You don't need to be embarrassed, you have a pretty singing voice~” Koujaku kissed the top of Aoba's head, then leaned further to kiss Hanako as well.

 

“Shut up, hippo...” Aoba scowled, and if it wasn't for the dark room it would have been obvious his cheeks were red.

 

“I'd sing, but I sound like a crow hitting a window,” Koujaku tried to make him feel better.

 

“I know, I've heard your singing. Sounds more like some kind of hippo mating call,” Aoba whispered back at him.

 

“A mating call, huh?”

 

“Is that all you think about?”

 

“No, you mentioned it not me.”

 

Aoba scowled, but he couldn't stay mad at him. Especially when he leaned in for another kiss, but this time on the lips. He tried to resist, but when Koujaku had that gentle, sincere look on his face he just couldn't help it. Stupid hippo.

 

~Bedtime Stories~

 

If there was one thing Hanako loved more than Ren, it was books. She adored storybooks of any kind, and had no problem reading the same story over and over again. You could bribe her with books anytime, and God forbid you warn her that if her behaviour is bad she won't get a story. She'd lose her mind if she didn't get a story, especially her bedtime story.

 

There was only one thing peculiar about her book obsession: there was only one person who she allowed to read to her, and that person was Koujaku. Aoba would offer to read to her all the time, but she'd politely decline. Not even Ren was an acceptable substitute, only Koujaku could do the job. Even if it was Aoba's night to take her to bed, Koujaku had to come to do the story. It got to the point where Aoba just had to know what she liked about him reading so much.

 

On Koujaku's bedtime night, Aoba peeked through the crack in the door to Hanako's bedroom. She had just picked out the story she wanted and went to give it to him. After she delivered the book, she crawled into his lap and got ready for her story. It was then that Aoba realized why she always wanted him to read to her.

 

Whenever Aoba was around he'd never witnessed why, but in the presence of Hanako only he found the answer. Koujaku was so enthusiastic and animated when he read to her it was unlike anything Aoba had ever seen from him. He made up different voices for the characters, made sounds to set the scene, and involved Hanako in the story wherever he could. Hanako would laugh and squeal with delight throughout the entire story.

 

It must have embarrassed him because he wouldn't dare do it when Aoba was around. Aoba couldn't help himself as he carefully used his coil to take a video from his hiding spot. There was no way he would let this opportunity pass him by. 

 

When Koujaku returned to their bedroom, he found Aoba sitting cross legged on the bed rematching the video he'd taken. His face turned bright red and had an expression that almost seemed like horror. Running over to the bed, he tried to get him to stop but only managed to fall on top of Aoba instead.

 

“What's that for? I thought it was cute!” Aoba laughed as Koujaku tried and failed to stop it.

 

“You saw that?” Koujaku groaned with embarrassment.

 

“There's no need to be embarrassed about it, I think it's really great that you do it for her,” Aoba turned off the coil himself.

 

“It's not dumb?”

 

“Not at all, I just wish you weren't embarrassed about it. When you do things like that for her...I find myself falling for you all over again,” Aoba admitted with a warm smile.

 

“Well, I guess I'll have to keep trying then,” Koujaku's face seemed to be losing its red colour. He leaned in to give him a kiss.

 

“Even if you think it's dumb, I won't judge you for it,” Aoba stated once he pulled away.

 

“Thank-you, Aoba. I love you.”

 

“I love you too, you big idiot.”

 

 

~Bath Time~

 

“Hanako, get in the bathtub!”

 

“No!”

 

“I'm not going to argue with you, get in the bath!”

 

“No! Nononono!”

 

It was a fight every time. Hanako didn't want to take a bath, Aoba and Koujaku needed to give her one. No matter what they couldn't get it to work: They tried individually, they tried as a team, but that child had a death grip on door frames that could not be matched. The temper tantrum that ensued every time a bath needed to be taken was starting to tire out everyone involved.

 

“This kind of makes me think of the saying 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink' or however that goes,” Koujaku sighed as he watched Aoba try to peel Hanako's hands from the door frame.

 

“Except in this case I can't even get the horse to the water,” Aoba huffed, “Help me out here!”

 

“Hold on,” Koujaku slipped passed them and into the washroom.

 

“Where are you even going?!” Aoba sounded like he was going to have a panic attack if he had to go this alone. 

 

“Relax, we're going to try something,” he turned the tub on to fill it before they got there.

 

“If you fill that only for her not to get in it, I'll slap you,” Aoba finally got her to stop clinging to the door frame.

 

“Maybe we just have to let her discover it for herself,” he explained, “Just come get in the bath.”

 

“Together? Are you crazy?!” Aoba tried to keep Hanako from squirming out of her arms.

 

“If she sees us having a bath, maybe she'll get in too,” Koujaku tried to explain himself.

 

“You can't keep it in your pants out here, what makes you think you can in there?” Aoba scoffed.

 

“We've already done it in the bath. My curiosity was satisfied,” he replied simply.

 

“You are one of a kind,” Aoba sighed and put Hanako down. He expected her to bolt on him, but she must have used too much energy clinging to the door earlier. After that he went over to the bathtub. From the doorway, Hanako stood there but didn't do anything.

 

“Just get in,” Koujaku motioned toward the bathtub.

 

“We are not getting naked in front of her,” Aoba insisted.

 

“I didn't say we had to, just keep your pants on or something.”

 

It sounded dumb, but at this point both of them were willing to try anything. The two of them awkwardly got into the bathtub, watching Hanako stand there in the door frame. After seeing them get in, she wondered what was so good about the bath. Why couldn't she get in there? That wasn't fair. She wanted to join, too.

 

She slowly walked across the floor and over to the bath. Getting on her tiptoes, she stared into the water. No one said anything, kind of like when you see a wild deer. You let them come to you, and stay very quiet as not to frighten them. The bath was too tall for her to get in on her own, so she seemed a little bit hesitant about getting in herself. 

 

“If you take your clothes off you can get in the bath,” Koujaku offered softly.

 

“Mmmm...” she hummed to herself like she was contemplating her options. Eventually she tried to pull them off, although that also required a bit of help. Once she was done he lifted her up and into the bathtub.

 

“Was that worth all that carrying on earlier?” Aoba asked her. She was too busy staring at the water. There were a few bath toys in there that they had used before to coax her in, but they never really made much of a difference before. Slowly she reached over and picked up a rubber duck.

 

“Quack! Quack Quack!” she moved it along the top of the water.

 

“Do you like the duck?” Koujaku asked her.

 

“Yeah! Quack Quack!” she held it up like it was quacking at him. When she put it down, she didn't think about the force and ended up making a big splash. That was a bad idea, because once she did it once she wanted to do it again. And again. And again. And more. And more.

 

“Stop it!” Aoba was laughing as the water ended up all over the place, including out of the tub.

 

“Water stays in the bathtub, miss,” Koujaku lifted her out of the water.

 

“Down!' she scowled at him. Both parents looked at each other in a way that said 'ooooooooh she's mad' and he put her back down.

 

“Water stays in the tub,” he pointed to the water.

 

“Don't wanna!” she started splashing it again and squealing.

 

It seemed like the problem of getting her into the bath had changed to the problem of getting her out of the bath.


End file.
